gene expression and pulmonary toxicity of chitosan-graft-polyethylenimine as aerosol gene carrier

chitosan-graft-polyethylenimine (chi-g-pei) copolymer has been used for theimprovement of low transfection efficiency of chitosan. the present study aims to test thepulmonary toxicity and efficiency of chi-g-pei as an aerosol gene carrier. mice were exposedto aerosol containing green-fluorescent protein (gfp)-polyethylenimine (pei) or gfp-chig-pei complexes for 30 min during the development of our nose-only exposure chamber(noec) system. chi-g-pei-mediated aerosol delivery demonstrated 15.65% enhancementof the fluorescence intensity. compared to pei, chi-g-pei showed no significant pulmonarytoxicity. in summary, using chi-g-pei is safe and shows high transfection in aerosol genedelivery to animals, and enhanced efficiency was achieved through our aerosol gene deliverysystem. therefore, chi-g-pei and this system would be applicable to future study for aerosolgene therapy.